Standard chairs are generally too short to allow for children to sit and reach a table during meal time without an aid, such as a cushion, book, or booster seat. Additionally, people who are suffering from arthritis generally have difficulty and experience pain when getting into an out of chairs. Such individuals could more easily and comfortably sit if the height of the chair was raised. However, such aids generally cause greater instability in the chair, often creating safety hazards. For example, when a booster seat is placed on a chair, the child in the booster seat is sitting in a chair that is less stable than that same chair without the booster seat. This is because the center of gravity of the chair has been raised and the chair has now become less stable. Also, frequently one or more of these aids are not available.
A number of different devices for raising the height of chairs have been described, however these devices are generally cumbersome to travel with and/or use.
WO 88/08682 to Hobbins discloses a system for raising a chair, which contains four separate leg extenders. Thus to use this system, a user must separately place each of the four extenders on a leg and separately adjust each extender so that all of the extenders are at the same height.
FR 2 794 628 to Clement discloses a device for raising the height of a chair that contains a plate with spikes, allowing for several plates to be piled upon each other, and holes for retaining straps to secure the plates together. U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,825 to Christensen discloses a device for raising the height of a chair that contains a plurality of adjustable arms, a top plate and a bottom plate. Both of these systems are large and difficult to travel with.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,952,983 to Crochet discloses a portable device of raising a chair. However, this device is cumbersome to travel with as it is quite long in its “collapsed” position. Additionally, this device can break easily if a force is applied to the center of the device, such as by being stepped on by an adult.
“BABY TALL” is the tradename for a chair boosting device currently sold in Europe, Israel and Australia. A similar device is also sold in Israel by Litaf under the tradename “HIGH LEG”. Like the device described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,952,983 to Crochet, the BABY TALL and HIGH LEG devices are cumbersome to travel with as they are quite long in the “collapsed” position. Further, these devices break easily when stepped on.
Therefore there is a need for improved, portable devices for raising the height of legged furniture, particularly chairs.
It is an object of the invention to provide improved, portable devices for raising the height of legged furniture.
It is a further object of the invention to provide improved methods for raising the height of legged furniture.